BBC News presenter apologises after giving camera middle finger on air

7 December, 2023

BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri was caught giving the camera the middle finger live on air in what she says was a “private joke” gone wrong.

Moshiri was momentarily seen with a raised middle finger as BBC News switched to the studio for the headlines. Realising that she was live on air, she quickly scrambled to compose herself and then told viewers: “Live from London, this is BBC News.”

The blunder has been clipped and shared by various X (formerly Twitter) accounts, and has since gone viral. Moshiri has now issued an explanation and apology.

The presenter explained that she was sharing a private joke with her producers in the studio, which involved counting down with her fingers and ending with the potentially offensive gesture.

“Hey everyone, yesterday just before the top of the hour I was joking around a bit with the team in the gallery,” she wrote on X. “I was pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0.. including the fingers to show the number. So from 10 fingers held up to one.

“When we got to 1 I turned [my] finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera. It was a private joke with the team and I’m so sorry it went out on air!

“It was not my intention for this to happen and I’m sorry if I offended or upset anyone. I wasn’t ‘flipping the bird’ at viewers or even a person really. It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.”

Moshiri is one of the BBC News channel’s chief presenters and has worked for the broadcasting company for more than 20 years.

In other news, CBBC stars Hacker T Dog and Lauren Layfield recently reunited to replicate their viral “We’re just normal men” clip from 2016.

The clip, which resurfaced and went viral in 2022, showed the dog puppet, controlled by puppeteer Phil Fletcher, saying in a deadpan voice, “We’re just normal men… we’re just innocent men,” causing Layfield to break into laughter.

Over a year after the clip circulated online, Layfield and Hacker T Dog reunited in a post on the latter’s Instagram page on Friday (November 24). In the new clip, the pair channelled the energy of their original video as they jokingly attempted to come up with an equally meme-worthy moment.

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